Why does pro-Israel activism continue to be an uphill battle despite the enormous resources dedicated to it? Are we losing the war against anti-Semitism or are we failing to fight it? In a talk that applies the lessons of biblical Jewish history to current politics and events, we will learn that fighting anti-Semitism and defending Israel doesn’t require changing our opponents, but changing how we see the world and ourselves.

A Jewish Ethiopian woman in the Israeli Defense Forces practices her marksmanship. In Israel, men and women are obligated to serve in the army.

Before our son Ariel Chaim ZT”L passed away in 2003 at the age of twenty-two, he and I spent a good deal of time discussing the Second Amendment, the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

Ariel was amazed that so many American Jews–overwhelmingly liberal and secular–aligned themselves with the advocates of gun control, in reality a movement to banish the private ownership of guns by lawful citizens.

During the Los Angeles riots of 1992, my wife Karen and I, Ariel and Offspring #2, were inside a film theater. Abruptly, an angry mob congregated outside; soon they were trying to break down the doors. Trapped inside, we were all terrified. I held Offspring#2 in my arms; she shivered like a frightened rabbit. Karen gripped Ariel’s hand. [Read more…] about Jews and Guns

Because of the Orlando massacre, I am republishing my three-part series about the Los Angeles Riots of 1992 in which Karen and I and the children were trapped for several frightening hours. We were unarmed, helpless save for our wits. The police were conspicuously absent and the bad guys—frequently armed with heavy weapons—owned the streets.

It was a defining moment in my life.

I’m reposting this series as a cautionary tale because when IslamoNazis go on murderous rampages the left invariably blames the actions of evil men on hunks of steel, piously calling for ever more gun laws. The ultimate aim, of course, is to disarm law-abiding American citizens through mass gun confiscations.

If the Democrat party’s vision is fulfilled all of America will become like those defenseless men and women in Pulse: Gays without guns.

Los Angeles burns, 1992.

Part One

Hollywood is Burning

Hollywood is on fire.

Karen and I lock every door in the house, shut tight the windows. We move through the house switching off all the lights.

Gazing from our bedroom window we watch orange flames lick at the darkness, pillars of black smoke climb into the sky. We can actually smell the acrid odor of burning rubber.

“Look how close they are,” says Karen.

“Just past La Cienega. Maybe eight blocks away.”

Karen gives me a long penetrating gaze:

“What do we do if they come here?”

My mind is racing away. The truth is we are defenseless. Unless I get crazy inventive like Dustin Hoffman in Straw Dogs.

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About Me
Robert J. Avrech
Los Angeles, California

I'm an Emmy Award winning screenwriter. I'm also an observant Jew, a religious Zionist, a conservative Republican, and a member of the NRA. I've been writing and producing in Hollywood for over twenty-five years. But the focus of my life is my family: my radiant wife, Karen—with whom I have been in love with since I was nine years-old—and my two daughters, who, thankfully, look like Karen. Not too long ago, we had three children. But our son, Ariel, died at the age of twenty-two from cancer. We miss him terribly. We think about him practically every minute of every day. People tell us that time heals, but Karen and I know this is not true. Time grinds away doing its terrible work. Ariel is gone. Yet absence becomes presence.

Ariel Chaim Avrech, ZT'L, May His Righteous Memory be a Blessing.

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